Other states interested in emulating Arogyasri: CEO

Published: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 23:02 [IST]

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Hyderabad, Nov 25 (UNI) Aarogyasri Trust CEO A Babu today said the Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka government officials were visiting Andhra Pradesh to explore the possibility of emulating Arogyasri scheme in their states.

Talking to newspersons here, he said Uttar Pradesh Health Secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey held discussions with him and state Principal Secretary (Medical &Health) P K Agarwal and described the initiative as unique in the healthcare management history of the country.

He said when he informed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy about this he expressed happiness and asked the Aarogyasri officials to extend all possible guidance and assistance to the states that wanted to implement the scheme.

As many as 13 states including Assam, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra had sought information about the scheme, he claimed.

Dr Reddy said Andhra Pradesh was proud of being the first state in the country and among the developing countries to provide free and quality medical treatment to poor and low income people in a massive scale.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and many other leaders had also applauded the initiative, he added.

Under the scheme, the network hospitals had so far conducted 5,600 free health camps in rural areas covering more than 13 lakh people. More than 1,20,000 patients underwent free surgeries and treatments.